Elections P.E.I. refuses to continue handling elections in Charlottetown

Elections P.E.I. has told the City of Charlottetown it will no longer handle elections for P.E.I.'s largest city, with the chief electoral officer saying he has "deep concerns regarding the councillors' understanding of the Municipal Government Act... and the principle of impartial elections."

The agency usually administers elections in five municipalities in the province, but Tim Garrity said in a letter to councillors that Charlottetown is now off that list. 

The letter was written in February, but was made public only this week.

"There are several reasons for this decision, but foremost is the fact that Elections P.E.I.'s independence was challenged at every opportunity and the office was publicly called down for its past work with the city," Garrity wrote in the letter.

"Elections P.E.I. and its team have done excellent work over the years and pride ourselves on being above reproach in our independence, our impartiality and in our ability to run electoral events on P.E.I."

The dispute had its roots in a city committee meeting in June of last year, which Garrity attended to discuss issues Elections P.E.I. had with changes to city bylaws leading into the October 2022 municipal elections.

At that meeting, the chief electoral officer told Charlottetown Mayor Philip Brown as well as Councillors Mitch Tweel and Kevin Ramsay that mobile polling stations are meant for licensed long-term care homes where residents can't easily leave to vote, such as Smith Lodge and the Mount Community Care. Only residents who live there can vote in such polling stations. 

The city wanted mobile polling stations also put in apartment buildings labelled as seniors-friendly, such as Charlotte Court and Spring Park Court, so that people could vote in their own lobbies. Councillors present at the committee meeting said some seniors without cars had experienced trouble getting to polling stations in previous elections. 

"What is required is to remove some of these requested mobile poll locations that the city has in their current draft bylaws and align them with the licensed health-care facilities that are within the city limits," Garrity said at the committee meeting.

The Municipal Government Act states that mobile polling stations have to be placed in licensed health-care providers; that wording is used provincially and was used by the City of Charlottetown for years. However, in 2018, councillors voted to change the wording in city bylaws to include seniors-friendly apartment complexes.

"We want that accessibility," Brown said at the meeting in June 2022.

"We have an older population... we need to make sure that these polls are in place."

But Garrity made it clear that the change could end up making it difficult for Elections P.E.I. to facilitate elections that were fair.

"Where is the line drawn? Where do we hold these and where don't we?" Garrity said, adding there are about 500 apartment buildings in the city, many of which have a high percentage of senior residents.